A preliminary study on the promotion of wound healing by paeoniflorin carbon dots loaded in chitosan hydrogel

Abstract Due to poor angiogenesis under the wound bed, wound treatment remains a clinical challenge. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new dressings to combat bacterial infections, accelerate angiogenesis, and accelerate wound healing. In this study, we prepared carbon dots nanomaterial (PF-CDs) derived from traditional Chinese medicine paeoniflorin using a simple green one pot hydrothermal method. The average particle size of the CSs we prepared was 4 nm, and a concentration of 200 μg ml −1 was ultimately selected for experiments. Subsequently, PF-CDs were loaded into the chitosan hydrogel to form a new type of wound dressing CSMA@PF-CDs hydrogel. CSMA@PF-CDs demonstrated positive biocompatibility by promoting a 20% increase in cell proliferation and strong antibacterial activity. In comparison to the control group, CSMA@PF-CDs enhanced the expression level of anti-inflammatory factors by at least 2.5 times and reduces the expression level of pro-inflammatory factors by at least 3 times. Furthermore, CSMA@PF-CDs promoted the migration of Human umbilical vein endothelial cells and increased vascular endothelial growth factor expression by 5 times. The results of in vivo experiments indicate that CSMA@PF-CDs significantly promoted the healing of back wounds in rats. These characteristics make it a promising material for repairing infected wounds and a potential candidate for clinical skin regeneration applications.